Mobile Payments Used by 10% of Japanese Mobile Users

In December 2010, 9.8 million mobile users in Japan used their mobiles for payments, representing about 10 percent of all mobile subscribers in Japan. When looking at the most likely places people used their mobile wallet, retail and convenience stores topped the list with 7.6 million mobile subscribers using
their mobile wallet at these locations in December, followed by vending machines (3.2 million), public transportation (2.7 million), grocery stores (2.6 million) and restaurants (1.5 million).

Since Japan almost universally is seen as the nation most advanced in terms of mobile payments, the usage pattern is illustrative. Only about 10 percent of all mobile users, in that one month, used mobile payment functions of their mobiles.

By way of comparison, 58 percent of Japanese mobile users got news and information on their mobiles. Some 53 percent used at least one mobile app, while 57 percent used email functions on their mobile phones. About 77 percent viewed media on their phones and 63 percent took at least one photo.

That might suggest that deliberate steps, with an assumption of modest adoption, are the best way forward for mobile payment partisans. Even in the relatively well-developed Japanese market, only 10 percent of users avail themselves of the mobile payment functions of their phones, in a given month.

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